Monday, 5 December 2011: 13:20 - 13:35
Cozumel 2 (Cancún Center)
Jorge Galicia-Carreón, MD, MSc
,
Research Unit and Department of Immunology, Institute of Ophthalmology, México D.F., Mexico
Miguel E Alonso-Sánchez, MD
,
Research Unit and Department of Immunology, Institute of Ophthalmology, México D.F., Mexico
Atzin Robles-Contreras, MSc
,
Research Unit and Department of Immunology, Institute of Ophthalmology, México D.F., Mexico
Enrique Hong, MD, PhD
,
Farmacobiología, Cinvestav, México D.F., Mexico
Raul Chávez, MD, PhD
,
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, UNAM, México D.F., Mexico
Maria C Jiménez-Martínez, MD, PhD
,
Research Unit and Department of Immunology, Institute of Ophthalmology, México D.F., Mexico
Background: Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is one of the most common eye disorders in clinical practice. It has been shown that AC is a disorder mediated by Th2 lymphocytes producing IL-4 and IL-5, where the eye damage is caused by a type I hypersensitivity. It has been suggested in asthma and rhinitis that T regulatory cells (Tregs) CD4
+ CD25
+ FOXP3
+ have been involved in control allergic status, favoring an optimal microenvironment with immunosuppressive cytokines (IL-10, TGF-β). However is unknown if Tregs have a role in human allergic conjunctivitis, thus it was the aim of this study.
Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated from blood samples of healthy donors (HD) and AC-patients, and then PBMC were labeled with mAbs against CD4, CD25 and FOXP3. Labeled cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. Statistical analysis was performed with GraphPad v.5.
Results: AC-patients showed 55-times more CD4+ CD25+ cells than HD (p=0.02). Most of CD4+ CD25+ were FOXP3- (90 ± 5.4), when we compared MFI of FOXP3 in CD4+ CD25+ cells, we observed a decreased expression in AC-patients than HD (28.5 vs 85.36, p=0.02).
Conclusions: Despite we observed higher frequency of CD4+ CD25+ in AC-patients, these cells were FOXP3-, more interesting, the few cells FOXP3+ showed a diminished MFI. These data suggest that allergic conjunctivitis status could be related with a regulatory dysfunction, as has been suggested in asthma and rhinitis.
